The colorful diversity of coral reefs lend themselves well to paper craft. Artist mlle Hipolyte has folded, rolled, and fringed the material into a variety of underwater-inspired forms for her work titled “Coralium.” Together, they comprise a two meter by one-meter piece; contained by a wooden frame, it’s as if we’re happening upon a living […]
Category: Paper Art
Wildlife, Flora, and Portraits: Paper Art by Kanako Abe
Artist Kanako Abe creates cut paper art that’s so fine that it’s hard to tell you’re looking at thinly-sliced lines. The exquisite details have a lyricism to them; they look as though they’ve been drawn with a pen. Even the subject matter has a mystical quality, and Abe’s Instagram captions accompany them like little bits […]
Time and Mutation: Photo Weaving by Jason Chen
Jason Chen is a Philadelphia-based artist (and the co-founder of Paradigm Gallery + Studio) who experiments with the “movement, process, and mutation” of time—a.k.a., the “Fourth Dimension”—in an innovative process called photo weaving. Using multiple photos of the same subject, each taken within seconds of each other, Chen merges them piece-by-piece. From a distance, the […]
Gazing Into the Abyss: Multi-Layered Collages by Alex Eckman-Lawn
Based in Philadelphia, Alex Eckman-Lawn is an artist who allegedly “lives in the gutter and sleeps in the sewer.” And when he’s not burning his name into the ground and trying to take down the sun, he’s creating fascinating 3D collages. Like dissected books, each collage is an excavated visual narrative, exposing the story and […]
Puzzling Identity: Alma Haser’s Intriguing Paper Collage Portraits
Alma Haser is a London-based (Germany-born) artist constructing complex portraits that delve into the nuances of identity. Some of the images featured here are from her “Within 15 Minutes” series, which explores the similarities and differences between identical twins; after photographing a set of twins, Haser then makes the photos into jigsaw puzzles, switching every […]
Nature Illustrations that Venture “Into the Woods” and Beyond
In Stephen Sondheim’s critically-acclaimed musical Into the Woods, characters from several iconic fairy tales are intertwined as they each venture into the one place they’re all unsure of—the dark woods. This is the place where Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (from “Jack and the Beanstalk”) and others have to leave their comfort zones and […]
Illusion Magazine’s Top Illustration Picks of Spring 2017
In early 2016, we selected a number of illustrators whose impressive works had already caught our eye. We’ve continued the tradition for spring 2017 and are equally as wowed with what’s been produced so far. With so many tools at a creative’s exposure—both analog and digital—the best ones have honed their techniques and married it […]
Playfully Complex Narratives in Collages by Sombra
Sombra (aka, Victor Ruano) is a freelance multi-disciplinarian artist working in collage, graphic design, filmmaking, and more. As a self-proclaimed “visual storyteller,” he is devoted to developing personal narratives in his art, as seen in his colorful and experimental collages. Modern and vintage imagery combine to tell complicated stories of humanity, such as swamp monsters […]
Modernity and Dehumanization: Collages by Joe Castro
Joe Castro is a Philadelphia-based musician and multidisciplinary artist who creates bold, symbol-filled collages using materials sourced from vintage magazines and other printed ephemera, which he finds at flea markets and yard sales. By enmeshing the human body with animals and technology, his work explores dualism while also critiquing the effect of modernization on humanity. […]
Origami and Mathematics Go Hand and Hand: The Paper Sculptures of Robby Kraft
Origami grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa has led the way for paper artists by turning this craft into a solid art form. Many newcomers have been inspired by his pioneering creations, such as American artist and engineer Robby Kraft who uses the wet-folding technique (invented by Yoshizawa) to give a more realistic, sculptural feel to his animal […]